Into the Woods…

The outdoor Art Ramble is truly a ramble in the woods, and worth a drive to the Hapgood-Wright Forest, just off Route 2A in Concord. 

Pictured is Liz Helfer’s “Foggy Morning”
Steel, chicken wire, nylon mesh, construction barrier
Says Liz:
Material choice plays a critical role in my sculpture practice. I have focused on metal since 2009 because of its historical complexity and perceived value. However, I have been moving away from singular material choices and have moved into a mixed media practice that addresses our impending environmental peril. My studio is located in Waltham, MA.

Artist Statement
Foggy Morning connects the idea of rest, peace, and environmental innovation. As the planet heats up, new technologies have become increasingly important to human survival. One of these technologies pulls water directly from the air, a “fog net” that maximizes water collection from the morning dew. Foggy Morning is a pseudo fog net shaped like a large worn pillow. The pillow has many mesh layers that reveal the smaller layers within, a reflection of the complex and intersecting issues at work due to increased water scarcity. 

Ruth and Marisol

One of my very favorite Marisol sculptures is back on display at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. Witty–not to say scathing–and demonstrating Marisol Escobar‘s trademark erudite draftsmanship and innovative combinations of carved and cast elements, Ruth (1962) deserves a second (or even third, fourth, or seventeenth) look. A portrait of Ruth Klingman, abstract expressionist painter notorious for her many affairs, the sculpture sprouts multiple heads and a centipede-like array of legs protruding from a pastel-painted pickle barrel. Klingman’s louche appearance in real life is corralled by Marisol into a characteristically fashionable facade. Wearing Marisol’s trademark pillbox hat like a crown of respectability, Ruth nevertheless gives the finger to passersby and points to a protruding tongue (or possibly some other anatomical feature) drawn on one of the barrel’s four panels, while breasts made of artificial fruit jut from her pastel chests. Klingman was the only survivor of the car crash that killed Jackson Pollock and Edith Metzger in 1956: being a muse to artists like Pollock and de Kooning was apparently much more than a mixed blessing, especially in light of Audrey Flack’s recent reminiscences of New York Ab-Ex life in Hyperallergic’s new podcast.

Rainy Day Bird

“Bird Afloat” by Frances Kent Lamont is in the permanent collection of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. Carved in alabaster on a dark green marble base, Lamont’s piece dates from 1950. She studied at the Art Students League in New York and at the School of American Sculpture. Lamont’s large output included portraits and war memorials, the latter at sites in Connecticut, New York, and Virginia. One of Lamont’s best known sculptures is perhaps the brass “Gallic Cock” in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Southwest in Ogunquit

At the Ogunquit Museum of American Art lives this vessel by Hopi-Tewa potter Rachel Sahmie Nampeyo.

According to the Museum, Nampeyo descends from four generations of Hopi-Tewa potters. She continues to design pots in the tradition of the grand matriarch, Nampeyo (1859-1942), the ceremonial title for the Hopi-Tewa matriarch who lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Her Tewa name, spelled Num-pa-yu, means “snake that does not bite.” She used traditional hand building techniques to form, glaze, and fire the pottery and combines ancient Hopi symbols with her own sense of design.

Rachel Sahmie Nampeyo, Hopi Seed Jar, traditional Nampeyo polychrome yellow ware, 2014

Surprise Amphibian

At the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Frances Lamont’s Garden Toad, carved in Westfield green marble, is hilarious and much larger-than-life. Lamont studied at the Art Students League and School of American Sculpture and primarily worked in metal and stone. This piece is undated, but was purchased by the museum in 1968.

360 Twist

The new Gallery Twist show is up!

Is there a 3D 360º tour?
YES, HERE!

The show images are viewable both in the gallery and ONLINE 
Visit in person at Gallery Twist, Lexington Mass.

“Bug Jazz,” bronze, 8 inches

Girl with Towel

A summer tribute to women artists at the Ogunquit Museum of Art features many painters from Maine, and highlights works like Dorothea Greenbaum’s lovely Girl with Towel. Made in 1940 and cast in 1967, this life-size bronze displays Greenbaum’s mastery of the figure and her signature psychological insight. Born in New York City, Greenbaum studied at the Art Students League. She championed the rights of artists and creators, and was a founder of Artists Equity Association and the Sculptors Guild.

Gallery Twist prints

Gallery Twist in Lexington, Mass. opens today with a new print show, Impressions VI. View a matterport scan of this historic home filled with art, or better yet see the show in person. I have two prints in the show including AquaParrot, (monoprinted linoleum block). On view until May 9th.

Yayoi in Wonderland

I’m hoping to visit the New York Botanical Garden to see Yayoi Kusama’s Cosmic Nature in person, but if not I’ll have to content myself with the digital experience. Kusama’s new monumental work is shown along with some of her slightly older pieces, like the portable Infinity Room, now filled with pumpkins. It’s hard to imagine this garden as being more spectacular that it already is, but Kusama has managed a wonderland. On view through the end of October.

Some perspective on Maya Lin’s new project

Maya Lin’s radical and light-filled library renovation at Smith College re-sculpts the campus, a green haven for students in Northampton, Mass.